When for reasons unknown I couldn't get on our board his morn I went over to see what was going on an d Lo! and Beholden the mity Doc had put a hornet in a toesack wif' 2 beavers. Regardless, I've quit posting on the board so read 15 or so posts and decided even tho the liberals were beatin' up on Herr Buckmaister I was staying out of it. Will say here howm-so that the issue is not up for debate.....the majority has spoken and as you so quantly stated Buckop, may the door-knob hit them gently on their way to Canada. WW

If it makes any difference whatsoever, I've been leaning heavily toward conservatism for many a year now. Living in MA and having to deal with Kennedy, Kerry and the highly polluted liberal local politics has really soured me to their causes. When the voters overwhelmingly vote for a state referendum to go with term limits and the Democrats in the state legislature decide it doesn't apply to them and decide not to enact the law, I threw out what little support I had left for the Democrats.

KC, as I said in response to GAD, it seems everyone feels that way about their local politicos. I live in a completely Republican neighborhood (never do I vote a party line, but these people can't help themselves). Anyway, we just had to establish an ethics committee--any guesses why?

Politicians of all stripes are, to me, mainly panderers. Their handlers are even worse. I strongly believe we need to go back to part time politics--instead of it being a career, political office should really be a citizen-service system. In other words, keep your day job and do some good for the country.

Only a few important posts need be "jobs" like the military, etal.

Not sure how it could work, but it has to better than having career celebrities (and liars).

I've heard the "If you don't like it, move to Canada" thing many times, and simply cannot agree with it. This is supposed to be a country for all of its people, not just for a majority of voters.

It's not always good to encourage masses of people to leave a country. A couple hundred years ago, people were saying "If you don't like England, go to the States." Guess which one became the world power on the shoulders of immigrants?

My sister worked for several years as an administrative assistant to a state legistlator in Iowa (a Democrat and Quaker). The legislature in Iowa is in session only part of the year (9 months I think). She liked the job partly because she had her summers free when her sons were out of school and could also work in tennis, golf and bicycling activities over the summer. In NC it's not supposed to be year-round either but several times they have prolonged the sessions to get a state budget passed (meanwhile racking up per diem expenses for their hotel rooms and meals in Raleigh).

Weighing in very late, I know, but I'd go for what Robert Heinlein once proposed: Anyone who actually wants a political position should be immediately barred from running for it. We should search amongst our communities, find the people who are the most widely admired for their smarts, courage, and humanity, and appoint them to the ballot slots. This thing here in WA is a great example: two twits, neither of whom is exactly inspiring widespread optimism, locked in a tape-loop purgatory of counts/machine recounts/hand recounts, ad nauseum. Most of us are just sick enough of it to take either one as long as they promise to leave us alone for about a month. The whole process has gone terminally sick and needs a major overhaul...which will, of course, NEVER happen...